i3-2330M vs i5-2410M

There are 2 configurations of Thinkpad E420 available, they are same except CPU. The difference is ~$80.
Notebook will be used for everything but the most complex task will be software development (Visual Sudio 2010, MS SQL 2008).
From Intel's website I can see that the difference will be about 200 MHz CPU freq, Turbo Boost, higher max GPU freq (1.2 vs 1.1 - can it useful for watching 720p movie?) and looks like there is difference about max temp. The only difference which I don't understand - table shows that 2330 supports twice more RAM (16 GB vs 8 GB), it is newer, so I think - maybe it will give longer battery life. OK, the battery life is not so important for me.
The important questions are:
1) will I see the difference in CPU speed for mentioned tasks
and
2) I'm "silent freak", so will Turbo Boosted 2430M create more noise than 2330M (also, 2330 is newer and maybe it has some improvements about power consumption/heat emissions)?

 

If you're a dev, you ought to know what single-threaded performance is. And that's basically what TurboBoost is most likely to help with. The difference is significant: over 30% increase in maximum clock. But you aren't all that likely to see the full advantage in practice.
I would only consider the faster CPU if I was developing an application for which I really needed better single-threaded performance, especially if I needed performance bursts rather than sustained performance.
The better GPU is only useful for 3D.

If you're a "silent freak", you probably don't want to be running the CPU at that speed anyway. But I don't know how the cooling in the E420 works so if you really want to know how useful TurboBoost would be, you'd ask E420 owners about their experience with the cooling system (what temperatures do they get, how noisy it gets under load and so on).
The cooling system will determine not only the noise but also for how long you can benefit from TurboBoost before the heat slows the CPU.

 

HFat is providing good advice ...

As noted, ask in the Lenovo E420 owner's thread here about the cooling:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thi...0e-sl-l/592388-thinkpad-edge-e420-owners.html

The i3 and i5 use the same architecture, the meaningful difference is that the i5 can dynamically "turbo boost" its clockspeed beyond what it is rated for. This helps most in single-threaded applications but also multi-threaded, since it can boost the CPU speed on both cores as long as the CPU is within temperature thresholds.

Based on what you said, I think there is a high probability there will not be a noticeable difference between the processors. The second-gen Intel processors are blazing fast. You would have to be doing video encoding or heavy Photoshop work to notice any difference at all.

I'm not sure why Intel's site lists the i5 as supporting less memory than the i3. The memory controller is located on the processor chip so unless that's different between them ... the RAM support should be the same. The RAM support limit doesn't have anything to do with battery life, it should be the same for the i3/i5 assuming you are not running the processor 100% on battery (in which case, the i3 will be better).

 

Yeah, I already posted a question in that thread, thanks.

I suppose that it is a mistake, but there is also another i3 CPU (low voltage)- i3-2357M which is new (Q2'11) and according to Intel's website it supports 16GB. For now there is no info about some new CPUs (i5-2430M, i3-2350M).

 

Might want to look into the Thinkpad T420 with the 1600x900 display upgrade instead of the E420 with its 1366x768 display.

1366x768 can be a big limiting factor for working in Visual Studio, because you can't fit very much on the screen at once with regards to property/error windows or lines of code. It's also a big limiting factor for multitasking, because you can't comfortably fit more than one Web browser onscreen.

 

At best it can boost both cores only half as much...

 

This E420 costs $600, T420 that you mentioned costs $1200. And also, I'm not sure about high dpi on 14" 1600x900 screen - how my eyes will react to this. And finally I have 22" 1680x1050 monitor at my workplace.

 

at times, lenovo has promotions. I saw a fully loaded T420 in the range of 800-900 last week and it is a much better line than the E line.

Though I am with you that if the price difference is so huge, not worth it.

BTW, working daily with VS2010/SQL server I can say that the faster the CPU, the better especially you have large projects.

As for the screen resolution thing, it is personal preference. I use 24" 1920 monitor and fallback to the 1366 one on the road(occasional) and I don't think the extra pixels on the laptop worth the eye strain and don't find it to be that limiting.

 

Play your coupons right and a T420 can be had for $764 if you just get the 1600x900 display upgrade and everything else stock (Webcam and 4GB RAM are default now). Add the i5 processor and it's around $800.

 

Updated my profile to prevent such questions - here in Ukraine Lenovo doesn't make any promotions, and the prices of T-, X-series are always very high, also not all products are presented on the market (for example, there is no L420). E420 and ASUS P43E are the only 14" matte-screen options available in this price range (~$600) - so there is nothing to discuss.